A former professional rugby league player, Dave’s career ended at 24 when a double leg break and a pulmonary embolism left him facing a nearly two-year recovery. Out of contract and with his childhood dreams in tatters, a former youth coach came to see him.
“He dragged me off the sofa and along to a coaching course,” says Dave, “and I got the bug!” Fifteen years later, Dave now works for English rugby league’s governing body, where he’s responsible for the strategy, management and implementation of all the national programmes below the elite squads.
Becoming a coach
“Even as a kid, I was quite an ‘interested player’. I wasn’t one of those who just sat quietly in team meetings. I’d want to know why I was doing things. I wasn’t the most talented in the world, but I felt I understood the game.”
“My first 12 months coaching grassroots were hard. I expected the players to perform at the level I was used to, and they couldn’t.
The impact of poor attendance
But Dave is clear you can’t have people persistently not turning up.
“It begins to affect the coaching: people just rerun sessions or stop planning altogether. It also affects the team’s performance. Players get frustrated if they’re working hard, trying to improve themselves, and other people aren’t there. You have to tackle it.
“It starts with communication skills. Set out your plans and goals at the start of the season. Talk about behaviours and standards that you expect all your players to adhere to.”
Strategies to manage attendance
“If you’re dealing with kids, talk to the parents too. Tell them there’s ground rules: ‘We know that sometimes players can’t make it for whatever reason, but let’s understand that if you want to play in this team, you have to attend training sessions.’”
“The rules might be different at different levels,” says Dave, “but even at international level, you need to have people’s buy-in.
Talking to individuals
“You need to recognise you have a responsibility for the full squad of players,” Dave explains. “Sometimes you need to sit a player on the bench for a game to get the message over, which also sends a positive message to those who do turn up.”
The value of coaching
“Coaching is much, much harder these days because parents’ expectations are higher. It’s not just taking a bag of balls onto a field for a session; those days are long gone. Some days you’re a social worker, some a manager, some a teacher.”
But Dave is clear that grassroots coaching is immensely rewarding.
"I still to this day get a broad smile on my face when I see a player I coached at a young level performing as a professional, even an international. If I’ve helped them in even a small way, it’s wonderful. You can be part of helping them achieve something amazing.”